Oops! ... I did it again

"All aboard"
"Britney, before you go, there's something I want you to have"
"Oh, it's beautiful, but wait a minute, isn't this? ..."
"Yeah, yes, it is"
"But I thought the old lady dropped it into the ocean in the end"
"Well, baby, I went down and got it for you"
"Oh, you shouldn't have"

'Oops! ... I did it again', Britney Spears [2000]

Remember "Murdoch's Law"?

When a politician quotes a Murdoch newspaper or Murdoch himself, they lose the argument.

Well it seems our politicians can't help themselves.


From yesterday's House of Representatives hansard:

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Asylum Seekers

Mr TURNBULL (2.00 pm)—My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his repeated denials that any special deal has been offered to the asylum seekers that were aboard the Oceanic Viking, and I ask the Prime Minister whether he has seen Dennis Shanahan’s column in the Australian today which states:

… they have wrung a special deal from the Rudd government.

Or the column of Greg Sheridan, who writes that the Prime Minister must stop:

… telling the most outrageous lies about Australian foreign policy.

Or the column by Paul Kelly, who writes that the Prime Minister:

… seems to think almost any line can be spun and will be believed, even when it is nonsense.

Will the Prime Minister finally stop treating the Australian public like mugs and admit he has used a special deal to entice the asylum seekers from the Oceanic
Viking?

Mr RUDD—We know when logic has departed, hyperbole arrives. This is a question based upon the observations of a range of journalists for whom we may have individual respect, yet some corporate doubt, but I leave that for those in the gallery to contemplate. I simply say what I have said before: the good thing about our country is freedom of speech. Part of that freedom of speech is having a robust debate, including newspapers like the Australian. The editor of the Australian says he edits a right-wing newspaper. Good on him; he does, and it is part and parcel of the robust debate in this country. I welcome the contributions of all of those individuals. It is part and parcel of the vitality of Australia’s democracy. And we may agree or we may disagree, but every organisation, every media outlet, including that whose editor describes it as a rightwing newspaper—or someone told me a centre-rightwing newspaper; I am told that makes a difference— should be entitled in our great democracy to have their say. ...